Healthy and doing well: Bone marrow transplant from Europe gives Bemidji man new lease on life

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At first glance, Lynn Schmidt’s job appears tedious. But to the 60-year-old, being back at work symbolizes winning a battle against cancer…Schmidt was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, in 2010 after results from a physical exam he took prior to donating blood showed low levels of hemoglobin, which is the main component of red blood cells…“There is a real risk of dying,” Mrinal Patnaik, his doctor of hematology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, said. “One in three people are not alive after one year. It’s tough, emotionally.”